'47% of Covid deaths registered among those aged below 60 yrs'

New Delhi: About 47 per cent of COVID-19 deaths have been recorded among those aged below 60 years, the Union Health ministry said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press briefing, Health ministry Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said about 70 per cent COVID-19 deaths have been of male patients while 30 per cent of fatalities from the infection have been reported in females.

"About 53 per cent COVID-19 deaths registered among those aged 60 and above, 35 per cent in 45-60 years, 10 per cent in 26-44 years and 1 per cent each in the age-group 18-25 years and below 17 years," Bhushan said.

Providing data on case fatality rate among different age groups with and without comorbidities, he said in the age group of 60 years and above, 24.6 per cent of deaths were of people with comorbidities while 4.8 per cent were of those without comorbidities.

In the age group of 45-60 years, 13.9 per cent deaths were of patients with comorbidities while 1.5 per cent were of those without comorbidities, he said.

Among the patients aged below 45 years, those with comorbidities constituted 8.8 per cent of deaths while 0.2 per cent of those who died didn't have any comorbidities, he said.

The overall case fatality rate of people with comorbidities stood at 17.9 per cent and 1.2 per cent for those without comorbidities.

Bhushan further said there has been a decline in the cumulative, weekly and daily COVID-19 positivity rates which stand at 8.07 per cent, 6.24 per cent and 5.16 per cent respectively.

"Average daily COVID-19 positivity rate has declined from 8.50 per cent between September 9 and September 15 to 6.24 per cent between October 7 and October 13," he added.

He further said there are 8,38,729 active cases in the country as on date and they have been below the nine lakh mark for the fifth consecutive day. Presenting the data, Bhushan said there has been a "significant increase" in testing for COVID-19 and there is also a continuous decline in positivity rate.

In view of the upcoming festivals and winter season, NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr V K Paul urged people to keep following COVID appropriate behaviour diligently such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing, saying there is no reason to get lax if stability in Coronavirus cases is observed.

Stating that second peaks are coming up in many countries and lockdowns are being imposed, Paul also said it is being observed that some people are becoming lenient about following the guidelines. He urged the youth to be cautious as they may infect the elderly in their families.

He said the novel Coronavirus is a respiratory virus and these kinds of viruses attack more during the winters.

Meanwhile, the number of new Coronavirus infections reported daily across the country dropped below 60,000, even as the caseload surged to 71,75,880 and the total recoveries crossed 62 lakh, the Union Health ministry data stated on Tuesday.

The total cases mounted to 71,75,880, with 55,342 infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,09,856 as the virus claimed 706 lives in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. For the fifth day in a row, the active cases of Covid remained below 9 lakh.

According to ICMR, a cumulative total of 8,89,45,107 samples has been tested up to October 12 with 10,73,014 samples being tested on Monday.